Erich Hückel was born in Charlottenburg, a suburb of Berlin, Germany, on August 8, 1896. He was the second of the three sons of Armand Hückel, a physician who was especially interested in chemistry. The father supervised the education of all his sons, and, in his private laboratory, he introduced them to chemistry, physics, and astronomy. Erich's critical, rational, and anti- metaphysical thinking probably originated from this influence of his father. Walter, the oldest son, became professor of pharmaceutical chemistry at the University of Tübingen and the author of a famous book entitled Theoretische Grundlagen der organischen Chemie. Rudi, the youngest son, became a physician.

Erich Hückel graduated from the Göttingen gymnasium (high school) and began to study physics and mathematics at the Göttingen University until the outbreak of World War I in 1914. During his military service H...